Amani Allen-Beale is an Environmental Science major at Georgia Gwinnett College. Amani was part of the inaugural SDG Futures Fellows cohort in 2022-2023, run by RCE Greater Atlanta. Amani is currently participating in SLS' Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program as an intern for RCE Greater Atlanta.
Stepping onto the property of Southview Cemetery felt like stepping into a Black history time portal. If you haven’t heard of Southview, here’s a bit of background. Southview Cemetery is a Black owned cemetery that was started in February of 1886. During this time, Black Americans were not allowed to be buried near or next to white people or host their own funeral services. Southview was created by nine Black men whose descendants such as Winifred Hemphill now head the cemetery.
Initially, I didn’t know what to expect during the tour. As a New Jersey native, I find myself always rediscovering history of the Black south that hasn’t been taught to me. It’s always a heart pulling experience when I learn about more of the history here. During the tour of Southview, we were greeted by the current President and great-granddaughter of Albert Watts (one of the Southview founders), Winifred Hemphill.
The tour began at the historic angel that you see when you enter the cemetery. This angel displays the names of the nine Black businessmen who started the cemetery including: Jacob McKinley, George W. Graham, Robert Grant, Charles H. Morgan, John Render and Albert Watts. It was during this part of the tour that we learned about the historical part of the Atlanta city and how Black people in the south needed their own funeral homes and cemeteries to be able to die with honor. If you know anything about Black funerals, you’ll know how celebratory death is and this is why; there wasn’t a place for us to honor our families in death. From the language to the traditions, Black people have honored death in a very cultural way that views death as a celebration instead of a dark time.
We began our tour on the oldest side (the right side) of the cemetery. This is where you’ll find a lot of the notable Black figures from Geneva Haugabrooks to Martin Luther King Sr. Many families of these descendants are intentionally buried in this space while new families are buried on the left side is the cemetery. As we continued our tour, we learned about many historical figures, their passings, and the ways their families keep their names alive in today's world through continuing their work.
At the end of the tour, we discussed how funeral homes and cemeteries are contributing to the SDGs. Sometimes we discuss the SDGs in privileged way when in actuality a lot of Black communities have already contributed to them but haven’t had access to the rewards of them. One SDG that Southview contributes to is Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11). Their unique way of contributing to this SDG isn’t by a fancy sustainable system that does magical wonders; Southview contributes to the sustainability of the communities by keep the records of deceased family members and old records of people in the communities. By doing this, we are able to look back at the past to help us determine things for the future: what contributed to a lot of deaths in this area, whose work are we able to keep alive, etc. Record keeping is a sustainable practice that helps our communities in the future.
After this amazing tour, I was called to continue working with Southview in a valuable capacity. I’m excited to work with Wini and the rest of the Southview staff on a special project that will be delivered by the end of this summer.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University System of Georgia, or the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.